Architects should think of themselves more like artists, and advance their careers by doing “unsolicited work,” Pedro Gadanho told the New York Times. The Portuguese architect took over this week as a curator for the Museum of Modern Art’s department of architecture and design. Gadanho will also oversee the Young Architects Program, an annual competition that MOMA and affiliated museum PS1, in Queens, organize together, where emerging architects build projects for PS1’s courtyard. [more]

The Museum of Modern Art is buying the home of its next-door neighbor, the cash-strapped American Folk Art Museum at 45 West 53rd Street, according to the New York Times.

The folk art museum’s building, which opened in 2001 and was designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, sits between the current MoMA space and a vacant lot that has long been slated for additional museum development. MoMA sold that vacant lot to Hines in 2007 with the understanding that the developer would ultimately build additional gallery space there.

Owning the building in between would allow MoMA to connect the galleries, though it’s unclear whether the existing structure would be torn down. [more]

The Donnell Library site on West 53rd Street

[Updated at 10:33 p.m. with comment to The Real Deal] The aging, five-story Donnell Library on West 53rd Street is back on track to become a hotel thanks to a new contract to develop the site by Tribeca Associates and Starwood Capital. (Note: correction appended).The partnership is planning a 260,000-square-foot, $400 million project that includes condominium units, hotel rooms and space for a new library, sources told Crain’s. Orient-Express Hotels had signed onto a similar deal in 2007, under
which it agreed to buy the site from the New York Public Library for $59
million, although a spokesperson told The Real Deal “the deal is not final.” [more]

“It’s very French to cut the head, eh?” French starchitect Jean Nouvel said of his planned MoMa tower, now 200 feet shorter after community opposition forced a height chop. “A guillotine.” In an interview with CBS News over the weekend, Nouvel explained that he had “tried to play with the idea of a needle” in designing the original, 75-story version. He’s currently working on a redesign. “My buildings are more famous than me,” he said.

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From left: Ellen Futter of the American Museum of Natural History, Thomas Campbell of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Glenn Lowry of MoMA

While the presidents of the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art have undoubtedly disparate backgrounds, they do share one thing in common: they all live in tax-free housing, on their employers’ dime. The history museum’s Ellen Futter enjoys a $5 million Upper East Side apartment owned by her institution, while Thomas Campbell of the Met and Glenn Lowry of MoMA live in a museum-owned $4 million co-op and a $6 million condo, respectively, according to the New York Times. These situations sometimes raise eyebrows — and questions — experts say, pushing the boundary of what constitutes a work-live abode. In order for these cultural titans to live in their employer-provided housing without taxation they must prove that they were given no other option but to live there, experts say, and that the homes provide a legitimate benefit to their career. [NYT]

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After yesterday’s announcement that the City Council had approved the construction of the Jean Nouvel-designed MoMa tower at 53 West 53rd Street, the opposition has pledged to continue its fight to stop the building from making its Midtown debut. “Nobody is against fine architecture,” Justin Peyser, a nearby resident and member of the Coalition for Responsible Midtown Development, told the New York Post. “The problem is where it’s being built.” The coalition, which is staunchly against the tower, will likely wage a legal challenge against the building, according to Peyser. Council member Dan Garodnick, whose district begins just north of the proposed tower site, said that the main gripe among his constituents is that the tower is too tall for the neighborhood.

The New York City Council voted to approve the Jean Nouvel-designed skyscraper today, set to build next to the Museum of Modern Art at 53 West 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues. The vote comes on the heels of massive discord over the proposed tower, which opponents feel is planned to be too tall for the neighborhood. It’s not yet clear whether development group Hines will restrict the height of the structure to 1,050 feet, as had been reported, or whether the tower will extend to 1,250 feet as the Hines group had hoped.

Development group Hines is deliberately trying to delay its Jean Nouvel-designed MoMa-adjacent tower, while placing blame on the city, according to New York Post columnist Steve Cuozzo. After City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden told the group that its proposed tower on West 53rd between Fifth and Sixth avenues would be restricted to 1,050 feet, not the 1,250 feet that Hines had hoped, the developer made a stink, he said. According to Hines, Cuozzo said, the shorter structure won’t be financially sustainable. But the developer’s woes extend beyond 200 feet, Cuozzo says — according to him, the group doesn’t yet have the necessary financing to complete the project.

Opponents of the proposed Jean Nouvel-designed 1,050-foot tower, set for 53 West 53rd Street, the space neighboring the Museum of Modern Art at 11 West 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, have produced a television ad condemning the project. The spot, which reportedly hit the air yesterday, singles out Council Speaker Christine Quinn and asks her to oppose the tower development. “Air rights are sold off and the people are sold out. Christine Quinn: Say no,” the ad says. Quinn’s office said in a statement that it is trying to find “an appropriate balance” that will meet the needs of both developers and residents.

Two years ago, demand for air rights was, well, through the roof. “For residential use at the peak of the market, [air rights] were between $400 and $500 a square foot,” said Stuart Siegel, executive managing director at commercial real estate firm Grubb & Ellis.

The rights, often called development rights by those in the industry, were being traded by everyone from real estate giants like the Related Companies to small-time developers. The goal: to erect ever-taller buildings, with which to pull in more income.

Stephen Lefkowitz, a partner at Fried Frank, which handled the transfer of several hundred thousand square feet of air rights from the St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue to the MoMa Tower to be built at 53 West 53rd Street, noted that at the time sales for air rights were “very active.” more